Letter: There are workarounds to biased fake news sources

Saturday

Aug 26, 2017 at 2:40 PM

By Joe Higgins

To the editor:

Having been in a previous life as a secular newspaper and book-reading political junkie but now a devout ecclesiastical reader, I nonetheless still frequently get a tap on my shoulder from longtime acquaintances seeking my advice on, in an era of rampant “fake news”, just who the “best” non-biased news sources are out there --- if any! Without saying, this is a very difficult beast to tackle, but let me give it a try.

By "non-biased" reporting, the Joe Higgins analogy is that of the news source being a placekicker and attempting to kick a field goal. If they're just within or actually strike the left goalpost upright, they've taken a progressive, liberal/socialist bent. Conversely if they're just inside or hit the right upright, they've taken on a libertarian, ultra-conservative stance. Both can be construed as extreme "biased" views. Meanwhile, those who split the uprights by kicking the ball through dead center are taking a neutral, objectively-based, factually-sourced approach.

I will say though that there likely never was, nor ever will there be, a news source that is 100 percent consistently non-biased over a length of time (just as even the greatest placekickers are never dead center with every single field goal and extra point they boot). Possibly it could be accomplished via a statistically-driven computer source with unaltered data input (meaning the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia is automatically ruled out), but not likely with an independent human brain source. Regardless, let me press on by citing my believed sources striving to report non-biased news to the maximum extent:

RAND Corporation
Council on Foreign Relations (although some say they have a NWO leaning….as in a BIG leaning)
Lexington Institute
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Brookings Institution (generally in the middle, but some say tends to lean Left-ward)
Heritage Foundation (generally in the middle, but some say tends to lean Right-ward)

Miscellaneous

Best source for researching facts: http://www.factcheck.org
Two of the best neutral, objectively-based, factually-sourced writers (IMHO): Victor Hanson Davis and Sharyl Attkisson

And lastly, my personal choice for the No. 1 unbiased source ... the Bible! Do I hear a second?

Joe Higgins, Jacksonville

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